Friday, July 22, 2011

For this issue, entitled "Tracking Shadow Inventory," I've been recently working on a project for a multi-family client to track non-traditional apartments in Southern California such as REO units, sales of non-owner-occupied homes and compare both the cost of ownership versus these apartments as well as what the new owners could rent them for and break even. Since the subject seemed so timely, I thought it was well worth covering it in more detail.

From the column:

...For apartment builders and owners, today's low interest rates means that potential tenants can often find a nicer and larger home for close to what they would otherwise be paying to live in a typical apartment. In some cases - such as when putting 20 percent down and borrowing the rest at 4.5 percent or so for 30 years - the monthly payment for both attached and detached homes plus taxes and HOA fees (when applicable) could still up to 25 percent less than what a tenant would pay for a traditional apartment...